Thursday, July 31, 2008

HAPPY LAMMAS/LUGHNASADH

"Lugh" by Ayrtha

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Last year on August 1, I wrote a post about Lammas, the festival of the first wheat harvest, an Olde English holiday I wish we celebrated here. This year, I revised the post and added information about the earlier Celtic festival of Lughnasadh (loo-nahs-ah).

Madron, Mother Goddess

From "Enchanted Moon" website

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The word Lammas means Loaf Mass. On Lammas Day, it was the custom to bake a loaf of bread from the new crop of wheat and bring it to church. Parishioners sang "Bringing in the Sheaves" and decorated their church with wheat sheaves and corn dollies (made from wheat, not maize). American celebrating Lammas make corn husk dolls.

In Scotland, the first cut of the harvest was made on Lammas Day, in a ritual called the “IolachBuana”. The entire family dressed in their finest clothing and went to the fields. The head of the family would lay his bonnet on the ground and cut the first handful of grain with a sickle. He would then twirl it around his head three times while thanking the god of the harvest "for corn and bread, food and flocks, wool and clothing, health and strength, and peace and plenty.”

"Lugh" by MorgaineduMer

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Like so many Christian holidays, Lammas was actually “stolen” from the ancient Celtic harvest holiday Lughnasadh, also spelled Lughnasad, Lughnassad and Lughnasa. It is named after Lugh, the Irish/Celtic sun god.

It is thought by some to be the funeral or wake of Lugh, the sun king, whose light is now beginning to dwindle. A more correct interpretation, however, is that it was established by Lugh to commemorate the life of his foster mother, Tailtiu, the goddess of agriculture who died while clearing the Irish forests in preparation for planting.

Lughnasadh was a traditional time for hand fasting, a temporary marriage. Couples would join hands through a hole in a stone, wall or gate, and plight their troth for a year and a day. If the hand fasting did not work out, the couple returned to next year’s gathering and officially separated by standing back to back and walking away from each other.

Lammas card from "Healings of Atlantis" website

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In early Ireland, Lughnasadh involved great tribal assemblies, with trading, feasting, music and games, and crafters displaying their wares. Right up to the middle of this century, English country people celebrated the harvest at revels, wakes, and fairs – and some still continue today. It was usually celebrated on the nearest Sunday to August 1st, so that a whole day could be set aside from work.

Rural folk sang and danced jigs and reels and held uproarious sporting contests and races. In some places, a woman—or an effigy of one—was crowned with summer flowers and seated on a throne, with garlands strewn at her feet. Dancers whirled around her, touching her garlands or pulling off a ribbon for good luck. In this way, perhaps, the ancient goddess of the harvest was still remembered with honor.

A SCOTTISH LUGH?

"Lugh" by Mickie Mueller

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Lammas or Lughnasadh was also known as the festival of the first fruits. It was often called "Bilberry Sunday.” Bilberries (or blaeberries), close relatives of the American blueberry, were a sign of the earth’s covenant with her children, so it was very important to gather and share them with the community.

This was the day to climb the nearest "Lughnasadh Hill" and gather the earth’s freely-given gifts of the little black berries, which might be worn as special garlands or gathered in baskets to take home to make jam, bilberry wine, “frahghan cakes” or simply mashed with cream. And some bilberries were also left behind on a special cairn or rock as an offering to an old, almost-forgotten god who first brought the harvest to Britain.

A HAND FASTING

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The celebration of Lammas is a pause to relax and open yourself to the change of the season so that you may be one with its energies and accomplish what is intended. Visits to fields, orchards, lakes and wells are also traditional.

It is customary to consume bread or something from the First Harvest during Lughnasadh. To celebrate the festival today, one might bake and share with friends a loaf of bread, a blackberry cobbler, bilberry (erm, blueberry) muffins or corn bread sticks (recipe below).

I plan to have blueberry muffins tomorrow morning and tomorrow afternoon I plan to see if I can find a copy of “Dancing at Lughnasa”, starring Meryl Streep, which takes place in Ireland in the summer of 1936.

Julie, This is such an informative post. You've done so much research.I appreciate that. To me this time is spiritual because it honors earth. I made oatbran muffins this am and lit candles. My celebration was quite personal since in my family it's Uncle Dan's birthday.:-)

As always, you've done a fantastic job of teaching us about the olde customs and beliefs. But with the hot weather I doubt I'll be doing any baking of bread but if store bought counts I'm always ready for some muffins!!

I hope you had a lovely Lammas!I baked some homemade rolls and lit a few candles, nothing spectacular!I never heard of that movie, but if it has Meryl Streep its probably good.Love the Lammas pictures!

Bread is my weakness :-(but i don't care, and your recipe sounds yummy.I let go of my hair and it was good. And I am letting go of other things ( I promise you) but it is not easy, that's for sure but I am doing good in other areas.Life is good.Happy Lammas!

CELTIC WARRIOR WOMAN - MY ALTER EGO

Gracie and Mom

About Me

I'm a lady of a certain age, living with two dogs, Gracie, a German Shorthair Pointer, and my new baby, Holly, a Short-Haired Border Collie, in a 1929 stucco bungalow. I lost my husband of 38 1/2 years in 2013. I have a beautiful 33-year-old daughter who lives too far away! A former newspaper reporter, I still consider myself a writer, although I'm not employed as one. On the outside I may seem very ordinary but on the inside I think of myself as fey and whimsical, with mor than a touch of magic and mysticism. I think I see the world with rose-colored glasses. Don't worry - I know what's out there. Why do you think I put on those glasses?

STONEWYLDE SERIES OF BOOKS BY KIT BERRY

I ALWAYS KNEW I HAD ARISTOCRATIC BLOOD IN ME!

"GREEN-EYED LADY" by Sugarloaf (circa 1971)

Since I am a Green-Eyed Lady, I adopted this '70s song as my own. It always brings back memories of living in Littleton, CO in 1971:
"Green-eyed lady, windswept lady, rules the night, the waves, the sand/Green-eyed lady, ocean lady, child of nature, friend of man/ Green-eyed lady, passion's lady, dressed in love, she lives for life to be/Green-eyed lady, feels life I never see, setting sons and lonely lovers free/Green-eyed lady, lovely lady, strolling slowly towards the sun/Green-eyed lady, ocean lady, soothing every raging storm that comes."